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Anwar May Not Pacify PAS-DAP Feud

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is again sailing on rough water as DAP and PAS ‘enter the fighting ring, ready to slug each other out of shape’ which threatens to split the eight-year old ‘marriage of convenience.’

And this time there may not be a glue or magnet that can gum or attract both the parties together as doubts hang on whether the opposition pact’s supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would continue or put out of action by the court.

PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali had met Anwar and Sunday has been set to bring leaders of the three parties together but the question is whether the Islamist party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang would attend.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is now mum over the challenge by Mustafa to an open debate on who is lying over the local council election issue and Hudud, had stated in clear terms that any meeting of the opposition parties leaders would come to naught if Hadi did not attend.

Hadi, on the other hand, had been absent in past meetings citing health reasons which irritated DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leaders as decisions taken had always been turned down, the most recent was last October decision on candidate for Selangor Menteri Besar.

Whether Hadi would attend Sunday’s meeting or not, where his odds of staying away is heavier than attending, Sunday’s meeting is expected to be ‘rough’ where Mustafa would meet Lim face-to-face.

Anwar is not expected to play an effective pacifier role in the meeting if it is held and his attempt may be futile as both Mustafa and Lim had made up their minds in sticking to their respective stand on the issues.

In fact, the pact may just take their own path until the next general election when they get back together for the next general election given Anwar’s verdict on his appeal will be known by Tuesday.

If Anwar’s fails in the appeal, the pact has no one to fill to replace because PAS and DAP will once again be at logger-heads as each party wants its own leader as the pact’s supremo – PAS wants Hadi while DAP may want Lim Kit Siang.

The fact is the verbal spat that go beyond friendly or family quarrel, PAS and DAP have yet to decide to leave the pact given the ‘fear’ it has on its support once it cut ties.

DAP is confident it can go alone with the tremendous Chinese support during the 2013 general election but the party is quite doubtful of the same influence if it leaves the pact.

That is one of the reasons why the party is promoting young Malays to the front which is also to counter any eventualities such as PAS leaves the pact.

And PAS has the same mind despite the party is split in two between the liberals who are aligned to Anwar and fundamentalists who are with Hadi.

Furthermore, given the reconciliation approach the federal Barisan Nasional (BN) is doing at present, PAS in particular the Kelantan state government as well as the fundamentalists are keeping an open mind on a co-operation.

The need for a unity government or a co-operation is more necessary after the flood disaster where every federal government jumped to hand out aid which parties in the opposition pact failed to do so.

Rebuilding the state from a calamity is now the main agenda for Kelantan PAS and only BN can help in such effort which further call for the need of closer and friendlier rapport between the state and federal governments.

This may further cause anger for the DAP and further widen and sour the political relationship between the two parties.MYNEWSHUB.CC